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Social Media and the Workplace

A survey asked Americans who are employed full- or part-time about eight different ways they might use social media while on the job and found that:

34% ever use social media while at work to take a mental break from their job

27% to connect with friends and family while at work

24% to make or support professional connections

20% to get information that helps them solve problems at work

17% to build or strengthen personal relationships with coworkers

17% to learn about someone they work with

12% to ask work-related questions of people outside their organization

12% to ask such questions of people inside their organization

Workers whose companies have policies regulating social media use at work are less likely to use social media in certain ways:

30% of workers whose companies have an at-work social media policy say they use social media while on the job to take a break from work, compared with 40% of workers whose employers do not have such policies.

20% of workers whose employers have at-work social media policies say they use social media to stay connected to family and friends while on the job, compared with 35% of workers whose social media use is not regulated at work.

Only 16% of workers whose companies regulate social media at work say they use social media while working to get information that’s helpful to their job, compared with 25% of those whose workplaces have no such regulations.

A relatively modest share of workers say they have incorporated specific social media platforms into their day-to-day work lives:

19% of workers say they ever use Facebook for work-related purposes.

14% ever use LinkedIn for work-related purposes.

3% ever use Twitter for work-related purposes.

9% use a social media tool provided by their employer for work-related purposes.

5% use social media platforms other than the ones listed above for work-related purposes.